Friday, September 14, 2012

Conversations with Dumb People

It all started because I wanted to see My Bodyguard. Actually, that's not true. If you want to get technical about it, it all started because in my "godlesss" household, the closest thing to God is Joss Whedon (followed closely by the holy trinity of Blink-182, Angels and Airwaves, and +44/Boxcar Racer), the man who lived in a land of stereotypical female characters and said, "Let there be Buffy." If you want to get technical about it, this whole ordeal really started because of Him.

I place the blame on He who giveth and taketh (you know, because He doesn't give the people what they want; He gives the people what they need) for one reason and for one reason only: if it weren't for His creation of the Buffyverse, I never would have been watching Firefly, and if I hadn't been watching Firefly, I never would have had the urge to watch My Bodyguard; if I never had the urge to watch My Bodyguard, I never would have looked for Adam Baldwin on Twitter; if I never looked for Adam Baldwin on Twitter, I never would have known he was an overly-zealous right-wing lunatic; if I hadn't known Adam Baldwin was an overly-zealous right-wing lunatic, I never would have tweeted him saying that I was disillusioned by his lunacy; and if I hadn't tweeted Adam Baldwin, he never would have tweeted me back and retweeted my tweets to his cronies, invoking the ire of nutcases far and wide. If it hadn't been for my love of Joss, none of this ever would have happened at all. So, you see, in a roundabout way, it's really his fault.

But it did happen. I did tweet Adam Baldwin, he did tweet me back, we did have a political dispute, he did tweet back and forth with me for multiple hours, he did accuse me more than once of "Educational Malpractice" because I'm an English teacher who didn't come equipped with the names of three moderates who don't loathe our president, he did look on my Twitter page and tweet that my "anti-Christianity is noted," he did make Twitter pics of my tweets and retweet them to his fans, and then he did kind of try to get me fired by tweeting a Twitter picture with the quote "I think Christianity is nonsense," attributing it to me, and stating that I was a Broward County teacher (is it ironic that he's about as likeable as his character on Firefly? Because to me, that's ironic).

Adam Baldwin, being part of Joss Whedon's world, has quite a few followers (though I must say 108,284 sounds downright paltry compared to Nathan Fillion's 1,416,815), so of course once the brouhaha started with Baldwin, I started getting bombarded with tweets right and right, first political and then religious. And you know what I learned?

A whole lot of nothing.

I was going to say I learned that people are crazy, but I'd be lying if I said I hadn't known that already. It was reinforced, though. Strongly.

It was reinforced when people who don't know me from Adam (well, that worked surprisingly well) started sending me tweets attacking me and not only my ability to do my job, but my right to do it.

It was reinforced when some creepster named Kent (@kentmontgomery1) who I fully expect to see on the news for going on a crazed gun rampage one day tweeted, "Broward County should b so proud! I bet ur students ❤having an athiest tchr! I bet u were @ DNC saying NO to God" and "What a joke that people like this can become teachers!" and "My opinion is an athiest teaching children is NONSENSE👎" and some frumpster named Lisa Scherr (@BBUMH) wrote, about my saying that I do my job exactly as I should, "Based on what criteria? The parents of your Christian students? BCSB ethics?" implying that I, in fact, do not do my job exactly as I should.

Those tweets are a fraction of the ones I received that night, but I think they convey the general tone pretty well. I think they do a good job of getting across Baldwin's Twitter followers' shared notion that belief in God is somehow necessary criteria for a teacher in a public school.

And how backwards is that?

Separation of church and state aside, fact that religion does not belong in a public school classroom at all also aside, my beliefs having absolutely nothing to do with my teaching kids how to analyze rhetoric aside too, how backwards is it that in a country where Christianity is not the "official" religion (and in a magnet program where Christianity is likely not the majority religion), the only thing they care about is that I'm not Christian? Nobody expressed outrage that I'm not Muslim; likewise, I didn't get any tweets suggesting I be banned from the classroom for lack of Jewish faith.

All of the
judgment
harassment
bullying
intolerance
ignorance
HATE
came from Christians outraged that I, unlike them, do not follow the teachings of Christ.

6 comments:

Aren't you chosing to hate all of them because they don't share your beliefs? The world is allowed to disagree with you without you calling them idiots. You ignorantly claim people of faith act high and mighty towards others yet you constantly pass judgement and put down the world. How does that make you any better than the people you verbally attack? Your posts have gone from "woe is me" to "I'm holier than thou... You all suck....". What changed in your life that made you feel it's better to be a slef-righteous hypocritical aggressor. Not only has the tone changed in your posts but so has your writing style. It seems more fractured and less thought out. I think your misplaced anger and vitrol is affecting you in more ways than one.

First of all, I believe you're not going to read my reply like I believe that the earth is flat. Second of all, if you see anywhere in anything that I've written ever that I'm choosing to hate all Christians because they don't share my beliefs, there's something seriously wrong with your ability to understand the written word (which wouldn't be much of a surprise based on your inability to spell). Also, this is kind of the same point, but if you think the tone of my posts has changed from "woe is me"--which it's never been--to "I'm holier than thou," you not only can't comprehend information, but you can't discern tone either. I don't think you know me personally--maybe you do--but there is nothing--NOTHING--hypocritical about me. I have never claimed to not be judgmental; I'm extremely judgmental, and I in no way intend to change that. I'm judgmental and opinionated, and I'm me. Nobody is making you read--or, in your case, what passes for reading--my blogs, or "posts," as you called them. You're more than welcome to ignore me entirely.

Oh, and one more thing. I think some people are idiots, but not for their beliefs; for instance, you--I think you're an idiot because you can't comprehend or spell. I do, however, think some people are pussies for saying whatever they feel like behind the safety of an anonymous mask. Think whatever you want about me, but that's something spineless and cowardly that I would never do. (In case your poor reading skills are keeping you from understanding the implication, I'm calling you a pussy. Pussy.)

Don't worry about picking apart my reply. I won't be reading your response as I already know what you'll say. This was purely meant as passing along information. No classic debate needed. Take a step back from all of this self-righteous bullshit and start enjoying life again.

What does religion have to do with your ability to teach? You are an amazing teacher--I learned so much. Those are crazy "stans". And yes they are idiots for some of their tweets. Christians fail to realize that by attacking non-Christians they lower the appeal of the religion. If Christians are looked at as crazy, shit starters, who would want to be apart of it?--and that's coming from a Christian. Also, how do you criticize a teacher with improper spelling?Whatever, they're silly.Shamara :)